Why Would the Government Encourage Employees to Profile Each Other?

TheBlaze first told you about the Obama Administration’s “Insider Threat Policy” last year. Implemented by the Obama administration after Bradley Manning dumped 700K pages of classified info onto Wikileaks, the program was a mandate to federal employees to report suspicious behavior; to profile coworkers to see who looked stressed, in financial trouble, or might have issues with authority; in order to smoke out possible leaks. McClatchy DC reports

Federal employees and contractors are asked to pay particular attention to the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors – like financial troubles, odd working hours or unexplained travel – of co-workers as a way to predict whether they might do “harm to the United States.” Managers of special insider threat offices will have “regular, timely, and, if possible, electronic, access” to employees’ personnel, payroll, disciplinary and “personal contact” files, as well as records of their use of classified and unclassified computer networks, polygraph results, travel reports and financial disclosure forms.

Over the years, numerous studies of public and private workers who’ve been caught spying, leaking classified information, stealing corporate secrets or engaging in sabotage have identified psychological profiles that could offer clues to possible threats. Administration officials want government workers trained to look for such indicators and report them so the next violation can be stopped before it happens.

Profiling is always a controversial issue in private sector or with law enforcement, should it not be the same in the government work force?

"Wilkow!" was joined by former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy to discuss this program and the idea of internal government spying.